5 Friday Favorites: February 28, 2025

It's time for my Friday link up with  A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals. 

On Fridays I share things that made me happy from the week - a photo, a song, a quote, a beauty product, a recipe, a pair of cute shoes, etc. If it's a product, sometimes it's something I actually own and sometimes something I just saw online that gave me a smile. Sometimes it's serious and sometimes it's silly. I suppose I believe that God is in the simple details of life and yes, I can even find Him in a tube of lipstick.

Hello and Happy Friday! Last week I was in a bit of a downer mood. My apologies. Grief can really throw you for a loop. You're just kinda moving along and it slaps you upside the head. It's a beast.

This week was much better. Mainly, it's because of the gift of my guys who keep me laughing with our family text thread - material which has the potential to get us all canceled, but my goodness, do they know how to make a gal laugh. Also, we had weather in the 60s for a couple of days which was a game changer. 

I was pretty determined to find some joy wherever I could and the Lord hath provided. Here are some of my favorite mood lifters from the week besides inappropriate text chains and sunshine.

1. Will and Grace Reruns

If this show doesn't make you laugh, I don't know what to tell you. I cannot watch this without smiling. 5 Stars for turning a bad mood around. I found all the episodes on Hulu.

2. Sunshine + Windows Down + Fleetwood Mac

I'm not sure if any of you have heard of an obscure little band called Fleetwood Mac, but they have some bangers. Wednesday I was headed to Physical Therapy to deal with my literal pain in the neck. It was bright and sunny and 62 degrees and somehow a song came to mind that I wanted to listen to. In full disclosure, I had to text Joe to see if he could come up with the name by saying "you know that song that some college football team uses as its intro? Maybe it's USC or another marroon and gold team? There's a lot of drumming?" Anyway, Joe Skinner is a genius and he deciphered my text and said it was Tusk by Fleetwood Mac. So I rolled down my car windows and cranked it up obnoxiously loud. I highly recommend listening if you need a little pick me up.

PS Start with Tusk, move to Go Your Own Way, then Don't Stop, then Say You Love Me.

PPS My physical therapist would likely not recommed any "bangers" at all because if you start to really feel the jam? No bueno for the neck problems.

PPPS Skip Landslide if your children are grown up and gone because it'll put you back into a downward spiral of sadness unless you remember how many times they wouldn't take a nap and in that case, proceed.

PPPPS Perhaps don't take any advice on mental and/or physical health from me.

3. Here Be Dragons

Books always make me feel better  - even those that deal with difficult subjects. Melanie Shankle was one of the first bloggers I ever followed online. Her writing is funny and faithful and relatable. Her new book, Here Be Dragons: Treading the Deep Waters of Motherhood, Mean Girls and Generational Trauma is not as light hearted as her previous books, but is as infused with her humor and charm. She details her childhood and the wounds she suffered growing up with a mentally unhealthy and verbally abusive mother and her fight to break those patterns, so that she could be a whole and healthy mother to her own daughter. This is a heartbreaking and ultimately beautifully redemptive story about how the love of her daughter, her friends, her husband and Jesus healed her.

4. Dr. Teal's Relax & Relief Body Wash

As I've mentioned more times than anyone wants to hear, I have some neck and shoulder pain issues that are a real bummer. I've always loved Dr. Teal's bath salts, but I had no idea they made body wash as well. This stuff smells amazing and I really think it helps relieve my muscle pain, promotes good sleep and helps with my winter sadness.  

5. Baseball, Baseball & More Baseball (Shocker)

We established that last week was a downer and I was all up in my feelings, missing my mom in the worst way. I was tired of hurting both emotionally and physically. I had a really, really good mom. She wasn't perfect, but was pretty darn close. My sister and I talked about it. We determined that we had had been so well loved by her and had learned enough from her that was so deeply embedded in us, that she had left us quite capable of mothering our own selves. Which I suppose is a great goal for moms. And we've been doing that. And yet, mothering yourself when you relied so heavily on your amazing mom is ten kinds of exhausting. I guess this is the only negative about having a good mom. So I was tired by the time the weekend came. Utterly wiped out.

Thus, the need for good music, good books, good sit-com reruns and good shower products. The icing on the cake and by far my favorite thing last week - and perhaps the most healing (besides Jesus and my four guys)  - will not surprise you. It is, of course one of my most reliable, steadiest friends - the gift I've had for over 20 years now. A baseball game - or three.

I understand that this will go away. The road trips and the hotel rooms. The freezing cold February games and the blazing hot summer ones. We're getting closer and closer all the time to leaving these days behind us. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. And I know because I've seen it with Joe and Kyle that the future will be bright. Having adult kids out in the big, wide world building their lives outside of our home honestly is so much fun. Until then, I'll be grateful that baseball is still hanging out with me. 

I can be all at once missing my mom, worrying about my dad, brooding about the big boys' hearts and dreams and challenges, beating myself up over the latest crappy draft I have written, and lamenting the fact that my jeans are too tight. Just all muddled up. But when that flame-haired little boy walks to the plate, draws a cross in the dirt with the knob of his bat, looks to the sky and then takes his place in the batter's box, my mind clears. All the muck and all the sadness and all the fear takes a backseat because ain't nobody got time for that in that moment. 

This past weekend we drove over 10 hours total in less than 48 hours. I watched 19 innings of baseball (that's three games - one that went into extra innings, if you're trying to do the math.) We stayed in a fairly sketchy hotel with a puke orange colored carpet and a shower curtain that made my skin crawl. After the game we went to eat dinner where I had a very subpar cheeseburger and a cocktail that tasted like garbage. And I was the happiest I'd been all week.

In May of 2023, two months after my mom passed and we were in the midst of Drew's senior season of baseball, I wrote about the healing power of this game for me. It still applies:

Baseball, as I've said before, is simple. It's routine. It asks nothing of me. It doesn't need me to send a writing assignment on a deadline. It doesn't need me to interpret a verse. It doesn't need a meal cooked or a sock laundered or a form filled out. It doesn't need a listening ear. I am solely focused on each player. On each pitch. On each run scored. The only thing I have to do is watch. Well, that and potentially change seats if things start going wrong for the team because superstitions run rampant at the ballpark. 

Baseball has delighted me. It has thrilled me. It has made me nervous and taken my breath out of my body and yes, it has made me sad at times. But the best thing about baseball lately is that it requires zero effort from me. It is like the best friend who sits next to you and let's you be exactly who you need to be with no judgment and loves you unconditionally.

We're off to watch Drew and his buddies play again this weekend. I know my heart and mind will be settled even if the game gets tight and goes into extra innings. I'll be thankful again for the chance to watch him play. I'll sneak a photo when he's not looking and maybe this time I'll just offer to mix my own cocktail. 

PS I mentioned last week that I'll be speaking at Arcola Methodist's Women's Retreat next Saturday, March 8th. There are some really fun and meaningful things on the agenda and I am the least interesting of them. ;-) If you are local and would like to join us, register here. I'd love to see you there.

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